Conservative conference: Osborne vows to crack down on tax avoidance

Speaking at the Conservative Party conference, chancellor George Osborne has promised to clamp down on tax avoidance and make an extra £10billion of welfare savings.

Mr Osborne said the problem lies not in how much is collected but how much the Government is spending (Picture: AFP/Getty)

The chancellor told the Birmingham conference that the Conservatives are the party of ‘low taxes for the many’ not ‘no taxes for the few’.

Mr Osborne confirmed an extra £10bn of welfare cuts to be made during the first year of the next Parliament, saying the government must not shy away from tackling welfare while other budgets are being tightened – just because it is a politically contentious topic.

Proposed reforms included a review of the system which allows young people who have never worked to be given homes while their counterparts in employment are forced to live with their parents.

He said: ‘Iain Duncan Smith and I are committed to finding these savings while delivering the most radical reform of our welfare system for generations with a Universal Credit so work always pays because it’s not just about the money – it comes back to fairness and enterprise.

‘For how can we justify the incomes of those out of work rising faster than the incomes of those in work?

‘How can we justify giving flats to young people who have never worked, when working people twice their age are still living with their parents because they can’t afford their first home?

London mayor Boris Johnson will speak at the conference in Birmingham later this week (Picture: Reuters)

‘How can we justify a system where people in work have to consider the full financial costs of having another child, while those out of work don’t?’

He continued: ‘And here’s the broader point – how could a country that wants to compete in the world economy possibly explain that it’s cutting budgets on things like schools and science because it couldn’t summon the political will to control welfare?

‘In this country we face something even greater than recovery from recession and the problems of the past – we face the shock of the future.’

Mr Osborne’s colleagues were quick to pile superlatives on his keynote speech, with prime minister David Cameron calling it ‘great’, defence secretary Phillip Hammond branding it ‘brilliant’ and foreign secretary William Hague describing it as ‘fantastic’ and ‘very, very clear, as always’.

Prime minister David Cameron was all smiles during the chancellor’s speech (Picture: Getty)

The speech comes after the chancellor told ITV’s Daybreak that, under the Conservatives, the wealthy will pay more than everyone else, but that it is ‘delusion’ to believe that taxing the rich is the only way Britain can get the money to combat the national debt.

In an article for the Daily Mail, Mr Osborne and work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith said they are seeking an ‘ending for the something for nothing culture’.

However, last month, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg told his own party’s conference that he would not tolerate ‘wild suggestions’ of axing a further £10bn from welfare.

Chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander told delegates: ‘We simply will not allow the books to be balanced in a way that hits the poorest hardest.’